Rams pleased with effort against Bonny Eagle

PORTLAND – One of Bangor High’s biggest challenges entering Saturday’s Class A football final involved the dedication of defensive resources, for Western Maine champion Bonny Eagle presented by far the most diverse challenge the Rams had faced this season.

Quarterback Matt O’Donnell had both passed and rushed for more than 1,000 yards out of the Scots’ shotgun set, and was adept at both play-action fakes and otherwise hiding the football from the defense.

Bonny Eagle also boasted in running back John Wiechman a 1,000-yard rusher, as well as three capable receivers in Kyle McKague, David Lancaster and tight end Mason Tripp.

What evolved was a battle of coaching strategy, with Bonny Eagle using a variety of offensive formations and Bangor mixing its defenses – at times using linebacker Nick Payson to deny McKague his typical passing routes, and at times devoting an extra defender to run defense.

Both sides had their moments, but Bonny Eagle had the final answer, a 29-19 victory good for the school’s first football state championship.

“We tried to stop the run, and they hit the one big one at the start,” said Bangor coach Mark Hackett, referring to a 77-yard first-quarter run by Wiechman that rallied the Scots to a 7-7 tie.

“We tried to take away the pass, and we’d overshift and they’d find the loose guy. It was a chess match, sometimes we were right, sometimes they were right. Their backs had a better day than ours, they had the few breakaways that they needed.”

Bonny Eagle finished with 507 total yards compared to 249 for Bangor, but the Rams’ defense forced four fumbles, a key reason they remained in contention until late in the game.

“They gave us opportunities,” said Hackett, “but they also could score every time they touch the ball, and we knew that.”

And once the Scots began holding onto the football, there was little Bangor could do to stop them – Bonny Eagle punted just twice.

“Our line was very confident that we could come out in the second half and run the ball,” said Bonny Eagle coach Kevin Cooper. “We came out in the second half with the intention of running the ball, and we thought with our play-action pass we could open up the run because of what Bangor was doing to try and take away McKague.

“That loosened Bangor up a little and because we were able to keep our offense on the field so much in the second half I think that tired them out.”

As for the Bonny Eagle defense, its task was less complicated though Bangor did use its passing game to good advantage and also got strong special-teams play, as Tyson Barron kicked a pair of field goals and T.J. Vanidestine averaged 40 yards on five punts.

“We run the ball between the tackles, that’s what we do,” said Hackett. “We put 19 points up, and that was a good job for us. We thought that with one more score, that would keep us in the game and maybe win it, and we were pretty close.

“This also could have been a 40-0 game. I’ve seen those games before, too, but our kids showed up to play. We expected them to, we knew they would and they did. But [Bonny Eagle] deserved the [gold] ball, they beat us. They were better than we were.”

Injury sidelines Rams’ Tyler

Bangor suffered the game’s biggest injury loss, as starting senior tackle Jeremy Tyler went down in the first half with a knee injury and was unable to return. He was replaced by sophomore Ben Bambrick. Tyler had teamed with classmates Eric Anderson, Kyle Oliver and Andrew Trundy and junior Andy Gould throughout the season to form one of the strengths of the team, its offensive line. … For Bonny Eagle coach Kevin Cooper, it was a championship most personal. Cooper played for his father, Earle “Pete” Cooper, at Lawrence High in Fairfield, quarterbacking the Bulldogs to state championships in 1983 and 1984. When Kevin Cooper left the University of Maine coaching staff to take over the Bonny Eagle program in 1998, he brought his dad – who had retired from coaching after the 1996 season – with him as an assistant coach. They’ve been a team again ever since, with Pete Cooper coaching from the press box Saturday. “When you’re able to share something like this with family and friends, it just makes it even more special,” Kevin Cooper said. … Bangor will graduate 30 seniors off its championship-game roster, but considerable talent will return, led by 1,600-yard junior tailback Nick Payson, sophomore quarterback-safety Alex Gallant, junior fullback-linebacker Mike McPike, junior place-kicker Tyson Barron, and junior center Andy Gould. “I’m proud of the season,” said Bangor coach Hackett. “Going 10-2 is a heck of a season. There’s not many times you win 10 games. It’s rough to end this way, but I’m so proud of these kids. We didn’t have a negative occurrence all year long. A bunch of these guys are on the honor roll, they’re good school citizens. They’re better people than they are football players, and they’re pretty darned good football players.”